Perturbed over the continued maltreatment of European Roma and inaction by the concerned authorities, Hindus and Jews have asked for an urgent special session of European Parliament to discuss Roma apartheid issue.

Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, wrote on his website on July six: “There are Roma in a number of European countries who have no nationality… It is not acceptable that European citizens are deprived of their right to a nationality – a basic human right.”

Rajan Zed, acclaimed Hindu statesman; and Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California in USA; in a statement in Nevada, said that European Union and countries of Europe had been apparently brushing the Roma apartheid issue under the carpet for a long time. Most of their fancy programs for the inclusion of Roma had remained dead letters because on non-implementation at the grassroots level.

Zed and Freirich argued that if anything went wrong in any European country, including the current economic crisis, poor Roma got the blame. Events of the recent past in Italy, Czech Republic, and Hungary signaled that tolerance was viewed as weakness and diversity as a threat.

Rajan Zed and Jonathan Freirich further said that they had high hopes that the new European Parliament would not stay apathetic and silent spectator when about 15 million fellow Roma brothers/sisters were reportedly facing blatant injustice and discrimination in Europe. They urged European Parliament to show strong political will, courage, and commitment in support of Roma cause.

Alarming condition of Roma people was a social blight for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly faced social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, unusually high unemployment rates, etc., Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out.

It was like an undeclared apartheid and it was almost total societal exclusion of Roma. The maltreatment of Roma was outside even the European Union norms. Roma issue should be one of the highest priorities of human rights agenda of Europe and world, Zed and Freirich stressed. -Sampurn Media

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